Historical Migration Flows and Global Health Differences

Thomas Andersen, Carl-Johan Dalgaard, Christian Skovsgaard () and Pablo Selaya

No 2016:1, DaCHE discussion papers from University of Southern Denmark, Dache - Danish Centre for Health Economics

Abstract: In this study we provide evidence that historical migration flows impact present-day global health differences. The underlying theory is based on three physiological facts. First, vitamin D deficiency is directly associated with increased risk of premature death. Second, the ability of humans to synthesize vitamin D from sunlight (i.e., ultraviolet radiation, UV-R) declines with the level of skin pigmentation. Third, the level of human skin pigmentation is the result of an evolutionary compromise between the costs of pigmentation (e.g., higher risk of vitamin D deficiency) and its benefits (e.g., lower risk of skin cancer); people living in high UV-R regions, as a result, became more intensely pigmented. Accordingly, when individuals indigenous to high UV-R regions migrate to low UV-R regions the risk of vitamin D deficiency rises markedly, which should in turn impact average health in the recipient region. We develop an empirical measure that allows us to explore the aggregate consequences of local populations’ differential risk of vitamin D deficiency, as caused by historical migration flows. Our proposed measure of risk of vitamin D deficiency holds strong explanatory power vis-à-vis health outcomes in a world sample as well as across US states.

Keywords: Health; vitamin D; ultraviolet radiation; skin pigmentation; migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 J10 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2016-02-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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